Last September, EEOC Investigator Ricardo Jones told The Black Star News that, “The EEOC is not investigating African-American complaints from New York to North Carolina.” At the time, Black Star News writer Donald Winfield predicted that the EEOC would fire Jones. Now that prediction is coming true. Days before Thanksgiving, the EEOC placed Jones on administrative leave — the omen of impending discharge. Jones is preparing to appeal his separation.
Firing a civil rights whistleblower on the eve of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday adds irony to an already sad tale of retaliation. Many whistleblowers of color depend on the EEOC to protect their rights, especially in the federal service were whistleblowers do not normally have access to trials by jury. To hear that EEOC would fire Jones after he accused the agency of failing to do its job weakens the cause of ending discrimination through the administrative process.